I was wondering why the vowels were repeated on the shitajiki? The ones circled in red are the ones Im referring too. Also the e vowel in Kataka (above the o/wo kana) seems to be different? as does the i vowel in Katakana below the wa kana. Can someone explain these for me?

Last edited by dreamingxashley on Tue 04.12.2005 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The ones that look different are the older vowels that are no longer in use after WWII (wi and we). The wi and we was just replaced with the i and e, so I think it's there just as a reference to older Japanese books.

dreamingxashley wrote:aha! Ok, I thought maybe the Katakana were old letters, but wasnt sure.

Yes, hiragana and katakana were developed during the 7th century AD. They were created by Buddhist monks who found they were having a hard time taking notes during sermons because it takes so long to write kanji. So they just created a "short-hand" form of the characters that could be written much quicker.

Thats not what I meant, but thanks for the interesting history lesson. I meant, I had thought that the Katakana that I was wondering about (the ones circled) were older, no longer used kana, but wasnt sure... I hope I said that right this time. ^^;

dreamingxashley wrote:One more question about this... what is the word that I have circled in the pic below? I know that the top two Kanji, if by themselves would be the number 15... but they arent. heh